


So are you watching me?

by malachiical



Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Feelings Realization, Imposters Eating Crewmates mentioned, NB!Imposter, Other, Pining, Sort of happy ending, The Skeld (Among Us)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:47:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27981012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malachiical/pseuds/malachiical
Summary: In the midst of a murderous alien infiltration, Cyan teaches White how to do their tasks properly. As his quiet companion seems to become protective of him, Cyan finds himself protective of White as well, and increasingly fond... But when tensions are this high and people are dying, it's so hard to tell who to trust.
Relationships: Crewmate/Imposter (Among Us), Cyan/White (Among Us)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 25
Collections: Mistletoe Exchange 2020





	So are you watching me?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [firelord65](https://archiveofourown.org/users/firelord65/gifts).



> Title is from the song Emergency by Paramore. The whole thing kind of fits!

They'd called an emergency meeting when they'd found Red's body, or half of it; it looked like he had been ripped apart at the torso, his upper half just gone. Yellow had never arrived, and they'd all grimly agreed that she, too, was probably dead. There was no mistaking the situation for anything other than what it was, a too-common problem on MIRA missions: infiltration by aliens, posing as part a of their group.

Whatever these imposters were, if they were even all the same species, no one had managed to figure it out yet. Whenever they showed up it turned into an emergency situation, and understandably no one had saved any bodies to examine when the only confirmed ways to actually get rid of one were to jettison it out into space or destroy it completely in the lava pits at the Polus outpost. All they knew was that, without exception, they seemed to want to kill the MIRA crewmates. Entire teams had gone radio silent before anyone had worked out what was going on. Ships had been completely destroyed.

Time was of the essence. They needed to figure out who the aliens were before it was too late. But discussion during the meeting had turned up... nothing.

"I'm going to sit in the security room until someone finishes their tasks," Orange had said. "Watch the cameras. Whoever gets through your list first, come find me, then I'll do mine."

"What has everyone been doing?" Purple had asked. It was impossible to see through the visors in their space suits, but as she'd leaned forward Cyan had almost been able to imagine a sharp gleam, and intense look. He'd worked with her before. She was an incredibly sharp, driven person.

The only person whose story had seemed even slightly off was White, and it wasn't enough to really suspect them of anything. According to them, they had been trying to swipe their ID card the entire time, and multiple people _had_ seen them there. They had seemed frustrated and nervous recounting it, and Cyan had spoken up, sympathetic: he, too, had had a really hard time with that when he'd first started at MIRA.

"I don't know who makes those machines, but they're finicky." He'd offered, "I can show you how to work it."

"Thank you," White had said.

It was nice not to be alone, especially after... everything. Cyan felt shaken up, fear making his chest and throat tight, though he'd tried to keep it together and be reassuring. He'd never been on a mission that had been infiltrated before, and he'd known Red, though not particularly well. He found himself grateful that he hadn't been the one to find the body...

And White seemed sweet. A usually quiet, serious person, they had been more animated during the meeting than he had ever seen them, though admittedly this was his first mission with them. It was hard not to be a little suspicious of the newest people, but Yellow had been one of the newest as well, and Cyan had heard stories of crews returning half-decimated and shakily talking about people they had known for years being the imposters. He wondered if it was alien symbiotes, or some sort of infection or possession, or if they had infiltrated MIRA years and years ago and had only just recently started to act—

The machine made another harsh, angry buzzing sound, and he winced. That was his third mistake in a row. And he was supposed to showing White how to do this correctly!

"Too fast," he explained. "You, uh, have to do it at just the right speed, or it doesn't like it... Like this."

Another buzz, and a sound from White that might almost have been a laugh. Cyan tried again, face hot, and this time the machine finally gave the little _beep_ that indicated that he'd finally done it correctly, and he sighed.

"There," he said, stepping back. White took his place in front of the machine, then hesitated, and for a moment he wondered by before—

"Why didn't you do this before?" White asked. Oh. They must have been suspicious of him, and he realized it might have been a little suspicious to invite them off alone.

"I don't like to be in big groups of people," Cyan explained. "I didn't expect— what's happening here— but I've heard stories, and I guess... whatever these things are, sometimes they kill when there's a big group all gathered up and it can be hard to even see what happened or who did it. Everyone was coming to swipe their cards, so I just... decided to clear the trash chutes first."

White gave a little nod. They finally swiped their card, and Cyan could see immediately that it was too halting, too slow. That time, they both flinched when the harsh buzz sounded.

"A little faster," Cyan advised. "I'm going to go ahead and do my upload while you—"

White swiped their card again, and the machine beeped.

"Try... Okay. You got it! That was good."

White looked at him. Cyan imagined that he could feel their eyes on him as he turned away and headed to the terminal, but couldn't see them, facing the wall. His skin prickled as he heard footsteps, felt their presence coming up behind them, then moving to stand nearby.

He glanced over, uncertain. White had the wiring panel open, and was staring at it, hands moving hesitantly, trying the red wire in each slot as if to test it until they got it right. He felt sympathy, a little amusement. A warmth.

"Let me show you," he volunteered.

They were still close to the cafeteria, painstakingly working on fixing the wires, when the next meeting was called. Orange's body... or bits of it... had been found stuffed under the security camera table, though no one else appeared to be dead or missing this time. Cyan was at least relieved that he and White could vouch for each other, though he felt queasy realizing that Orange's announcement last meeting had likely made them a target and told the imposters exactly where they could be found.

White had trouble with things, it seemed. A lot of the tasks they were meant to do around the ship in general. It wasn't that they were clumsy, but they were slow, hesitant, not even like they were always second-guessing themself but like they only had the barest idea of what needed to be done and not how to do it properly. Cyan had no idea what kind of training they'd gotten, but either it hadn't stuck or this high-stress situation was really doing a number on them. They almost seemed even quieter than normal, both not saying much and keeping their voice soft, and with none of the animation that they'd shown during the meeting.

When the lights flickered and went out, Cyan's heart felt like it flickered along with them, and he heard himself gasp. He reached for White in the dark, knowing it was silly but wanting to know that they were still there. His hand found their arm, and they placed their hand on his. For a moment he thought they were going to move it from their arm, but they just rested it there. He could barely feel the pressure through the combined fabric of their suits, certainly couldn't feel any sort of living warmth, but he was grateful anyway for the quiet, subtle reassurance; it felt very _White_ already.

"We should fix this," he whispered. "What if they can see in the dark?"

They stepped closer to him, maybe so that he could see them nod.

They both tried to fix the lights simultaneously at first, but got in one another's way enough that Cyan urged White to let him do it, asked them to watch his back—"as much as you can in the dark." The lights came back on gradually, dim at first, and when he turned to look at them again he almost didn't catch the way they shook their head.

They were facing the door, their back to him, like they had actually been watching his back as best they could. Lime was standing in the doorway, looking at the two of them silently. Cyan felt a chill.

Then the lights brightened the rest of the way, and Purple came into view, walking up behind Lime and squeezing past him through the doorway. "Good job on the lights," she said. "Cyan did them?"

That time, White nodded.

"That was pretty quick. Let's get anything we need to get done in here knocked out," Purple suggested. "We should be pretty safe if we're all here, and I don't like the idea of being tucked behind all this equipment alone. Then we can call a quick meeting and make sure no one was killed while the lights were out."

"Smart," Lime agreed. Cyan told himself he was being ridiculous, he couldn't see Lime's eyes or face at all, but he imagined that Lime was still staring down White. Just from the back of their head, they didn't seem to be looking away from him, either.

Cyan was uneasy as they all worked on their tasks in the back of electrical, and felt a renewed worry for White. During the meeting, he told himself, he'd bring up having a bad feeling about Lime... or would that just make him, the both of them, more of a target? If Lime really was one of those... things... and White was warning him away, trying to protect Cyan and themself, he'd feel terrible drawing Lime's attention even more.

"I didn't really mean it," he said quietly to White as they all moved to the cafeteria, lagging behind to try to talk to them with a little bit of privacy. "You shouldn't put yourself at risk for me."

White looked at him, not saying anything for several long seconds. He wished he could make out the look on their face. He hadn't ever seen their face; he couldn't even imagine it. "Crewmates should try to protect each other," they said slowly, as slowly as they ever did any of their apparently-mysterious-to-them tasks, their own voice so soft that even he could barely hear.

"If anything happens," he said, "don't stick around. Run and call a meeting."

They nodded. They were silent nearly that entire meeting; no one had died, it seemed, and Lime argued loudly with Cyan the moment he expressed his suspicion, saying that accusing him of _staring_ was stupid, he'd just been trying to make out who was there in the dark before the lights had turned on, and they couldn't even see each others eyes anyway. All White said, when Pink asked them if they were really suspicious of Lime too, was, "The only person here I trust is Cyan."

Cyan felt such a strange mix of emotions from that.

"Look, I'll prove I'm innocent," Lime said finally. "I have one last task to do. I was putting off starting up the reactor because I hate doing it, but whoever wants to come watch me do it can, and then I'll spend the rest of the trip until we land in security watching the cameras. All right?"

"You don't need to tell the imposter where you're going to be," Blue protested.

"Apparently I do if I don't want to be tossed out of the airlock."

"I'll go with you," Purple said. "Someone else should, too, just in case."

"I'll go," Blue said. "I think Cyan's accusation is a stretch."

"It's not a hard accusation," Cyan protested, but weakly. No one had died this time. No one had died in the dark, alone, but he was sure that luck couldn't last, and if they didn't get rid of the imposter... Or imposters? Sometimes crews had come back and said there had been more than one... What if there were two, still? What if Blue and Lime were both...?

But after Red and Yellow, people were being killed so slowly. If there was more than one, there would have been more deaths, surely? It had been Orange, at cameras, and nobody else since then, not even when the lights had been sabotaged. The imposter must be alone, working slowly and carefully. A cold, clever, single-minded predator.

Was it really Lime? Had Cyan just been imagining things? He didn't know Lime well, but had worked with him several times before, and they'd been on decent terms. He wasn't really acting any different on this mission, other than that quiet moment, and maybe he'd just been sizing White up and wondering if they were the imposter. Maybe he'd thought he'd walked in on White preparing to kill. It was possible. Cyan couldn't imagine that he'd always been some murderous alien biding his time...

He wanted to be as far away from Lime as possible. He shook his head once the meeting broke up, looking over at White.

"Do you want to see how to work the shields?"

It was one of the few tasks he had left to do. He showed White how, then watched them do it, noticing them glancing over at him as they did so. Had they done that before on the other tasks? He didn't think they had. Once again he felt a surge of emotions, too many of them—concern, fear, affection, protectiveness. He wanted to reach out and hold onto them, not just because he was afraid, but because he wanted to help them be less afraid too, and... and just because he wanted to.

"I have to submit my medscan," he informed them. "It's my last task. Do you have anything in MedBay?"

White hesitated. "I have to inspect the samples for anomalies," they said, quiet, and somehow their voice came out even smaller. "...Later?"

"...You really don't trust Lime either, huh?"

"I know you don't trust him."

"We'll get in and out as quick as we can," Cyan assured them. "You don't even have to stay the whole time to wait for the samples, we can leave and come back after my scan. It should be okay as long as we stick together. We'll be okay."

White didn't nod. They weren't hesitating either, apparently; Cyan waited, but there was no nod or "okay" forthcoming. He didn't want to go alone, but pushed down sudden panic at the thought; he couldn't let himself get _dependent_ on always having White around! He couldn't let the fear just paralyze him. He needed to get this done, with or without them. So he turned away, though his heart sank.

No nod, no "okay," but when he set off to MedBay he heard White's footsteps following behind him.

"See if you can start up the machine while I scan," Cyan suggested as he stepped onto the MedBay scanner. "If you have any trouble, I can show you how before we leave." But if they didn't have trouble—and it was a really easy machine to operate, honestly—then it'd take them less time to get out. They could find a place to hole up, get as safe as possible...

The scan passed without incident, and he felt almost lightheaded with relief when he heard the 'click' of it finishing, knowing his last task had been submitted. They weren't out of the woods yet, but he felt so much safer already.

"Did you—" he began, stepping off the scanner, and the doors to MedBay hissed shut.

Behind the visor, his eyes widened. He ran to the door, finding it sealed tightly shut, locked. No override. He turned to look at White, despairing, and was surprised to see them still practically on the other side of the room... Then followed their gaze, or at least the direction they was facing, and his heart leapt to his throat. It might have been the only reason he didn't scream.

The vent in the floor was open. It was a small vent in the corner of the room, and there was no way anyone could ever fit inside it. Except that Lime's suit was... _oozing_ its way out of it, that was the only word Cyan could think of, except it was quicker than that implied. Lime practically fountained his way out of the vent, with a few odd cracking sounds, as if bone or cartilage was snapping into or out of place. For a few moments until he settled, Lime was not the right shape at all. Not even slightly.

"White." Cyan's voice sounded like it was coming from far away to his own ears; he didn't feel like he was speaking. He didn't want to draw attention to White, but they were standing _right there,_ it would be impossible for Lime not to see them— "White, over here. Get over here. Please." Maybe the door would open in time, they could run, but White couldn't stay close to Lime, if they were closer then Lime would definitely go after them first and Cyan couldn't bear to see that.

"Smart," Lime said, in the same tones he had in Electrical. His suit... oh, no, his _face_... the lime green supposed-to-be-fabric split open in a grin full of large, sharp fangs. "You made him trust you. Blue's dead in Security; you can kill him now and they won't be able to stop us..."

Cyan felt like he couldn't breathe. He felt sick. He looked over to White, unmoving, still in front of the machine, back turned to the empty tubes; they'd never started the samples. He wondered if they'd even tried. His voice was smaller than theirs ever had been. "White?"

White stepped forward, and their own face opened into a jagged maw. And opened further.

Their tongue extended into a long, sharp spike and pierced cleanly through Lime's head.

It took maybe two seconds. White's mouth closed and they looked entirely normal again before Lime's body had even finished crumpling to the ground. And then they just... stared, head angled slightly down, silently looking at the corpse as it pooled an odd, black blood.

"You..." Cyan had to try again, unable to piece his thoughts together. The universe felt completely insane; he couldn't wrap his head around it. Somewhere deep down, he felt hurt, betrayed, but it was a surprisingly mild feeling. "You're..." He gave up, tried again, and instead wound up asking the question that really felt most important right now. "Why?"

White didn't look away from the body. "I don't know."

"Are you going to kill me?" Somehow that felt like a stupid question, but he really wasn't sure.

"No."

Somehow, the lack of hesitation to that answer surprised him. It seemed to surprise White as well, as they suddenly looked at him, with surprising speed, after saying it.

White had killed the imposter... their fellow imposter, for him. He leaned back against the door, almost fell when it suddenly hissed open, and glanced back with sudden alarm to make sure there was no one in the hallway.

Despite the revulsion the corpse raised in him, he walked over to White, lowering his voice. Urgent, feeling that protectiveness rise again; he almost couldn't believe himself, but whatever they was, White had _killed their fellow imposter to protect him_... "We can say you stabbed him, that he tried to kill me. No one will suspect you, not with that blood, not if the deaths stop. You can come back to MIRA with us, like normal..."

White shook their head. "I'm not normal. They'll notice."

"Then— then when we get back you can sneak away. Find your people..." It felt wrong to suggest that for a lot of reasons, but he was almost desperate. They shook their head again.

"I killed him." They looked back at the body as they said that. He wished again that he could see their face. "There's no place for me with them."

He made a frustrated sound. "Then what do we do? They can't kill you. I won't let them."

White looked at him again. To his surprise, they reached for his hand, took hold of it loosely. "Do you care about them?"

"...What?"

"MIRA. Your crew."

"I..." In the unseen safety of his suit, Cyan's mouth worked. "MIRA is important. And Purple is my friend. But I care about you, too."

"I don't care about them," White informed him quietly. It was so matter-of-fact, so lacking in emotion. They'd only ever had emotional animation during those meetings, he remembered. "I can't be like them ever again. Like you. But you can be like me."

His response was immediate, instinctive. Kneejerk. "No."

To his surprise, White nodded, letting go of his hand and stepping back. His heart hurt, an ache creeping up his throat.

"Wait," he said, voice choked. They looked at him unmoving, unspeaking, and he wanted to try again, didn't know what to stay. All he could manage, after a few moments, was, "What is it like?"

That time, White's pause almost seemed considering. "...Hungry." For the first time since meeting them, a smile came into their voice, and it shook him to his core. "We could eat him. They won't find a body."

That's why only parts of bodies were found, if that. They ate people. Cyan felt sick with the realization, but White's voice, that smile... He felt like he might do just about anything for them. But this?

He took their hand again, squeezed it. "Half your plan," he said, heart hammering. "Half mine. We tell them Lime was the alien, that we killed him in self-defense. We go back, sneak away. We find a place we can go. Just the two of us. You don't get in trouble, not from MIRA, not from... your people. We can find somewhere safe, together."

White was quiet, considering this, letting him keep a tight hold of their hand without comment or any apparent reaction. "Is it important?"

Would it be important to him at all later? Would he care anymore, after he was one of... whatever these things were? Would he still be himself? There was a lump in his throat. "Right now it is. To me."

White nodded, and to his surprise, they squeezed his hand in return. "I care about you," they said, "too."

He took a breath. Relieved, afraid, sickened. Feeling a deep grief for who and what he was, and so hopelessly in love. "Okay," he said, and tugged on their hand, leading them towards the cafeteria. "Emergency meeting."

**Author's Note:**

> I absolutely love this game and was excited to get this request; I really liked what you were asking for and hope I did it justice! Imposters fascinate me and it was fun to play around with their anatomy and hint at other little things about them, and to explore the idea of one going kinda rogue due to Developing Feelings but still being pretty alien about it. I also really liked writing from Cyan's POV, especially the ending.
> 
> I hope you like the fic and that you had an excellent exchange! Happy Holidays!


End file.
